Our boondocking spot this week has glorious views of Santa Rita Mountains, Tumacacori Mountains, Sierrita Mountains, Elephant Head, and more! It’s pretty quiet out here…and very dark at night.
Trailforks showed some trails in the Tubac area which is down the road from where we are so we decided to check them out. Our loop wasn’t long distance wise, but these trails are tough, rough, and REMOTE and time wise it was slow going. The ride was 15 miles with 1927′ of climbing including the hike a bike sections. A lot of the trails were black diamond and quite deserving of that designation. The riding is incredibly rocky with not much room for error because the trails are lined with all manner of cacti.
We started out on Puerto Canyon Road and took the first trail called 485/Puerto. The trails are all signed with numbers that correspond to Trailforks. Tough loose rocky climbs followed by challenging loose rocky descents kept us alert. We turned on Upper Red Spring trails and it was more of the same character. Relentlessly difficult riding. The same would be true for Upper Puerto, Coyote, and Sardina trails. We didn’t see anyone else out here all day, but it is definitely a heavily traveled area for migrants. We ended back on the main Puerto Canyon Road for a beautiful descent back to the start.
If you’re ever in the area, I’d at least recommend taking the main Puerto Canyon Road to see how beautiful the area is. On mountain bikes it would still be quite a challenge to just stick to the main gravel road. If you’re up for some technical riding, the trails are just your thing.
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